The Next Generation
by Loki Trickster
Summary: Inuyasha and Kagome's kids must face a whole new wave of problems. (Chapter 7 up)
1. A Normal Day

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Inu Yasha nor do I own any characters I did not make up.

Chapter 1: A Normal Day

Running to catch the bus, Erika tripped over her left foot and, just before she landed flat on her face, Damien came swooping in to catch her and swing her onto his back without even missing a step.

"You gotta learn to walk, sis." Damien said glancing back to his sister.

"Oh, shut up and let me off before someone sees us." Erika said as they reached the bus stop a few seconds before the bus came, as usual.

The bus screeched to a stop inches in front of Erika's nose. She stepped up and walked on.

"Erika!"

"Hey, Erika!"

"Over here, Erika!"

As every day, Erika was treated with warm shouts from her posse from the back and as usual Damien walked to the closest seat and sat down, pulling his caps down over his eyes to give the illusion that he was asleep.

"Who is that guy, Erika?" whispered one of her lemmings.

"Oh, you mean the guy at the front? I…I dunno, just some creep who is always there when I get there. The weird thing is I never see him anywhere but the bus stop. It's like he goes out of his way to follow me." Erika responded.

"I bet he's a stalker." At this everyone in the bag giggled frantically.

Normally, Damien would have been out of hearing distance although, thanks to his incredible heritage, underneath his baseball cap are two astoundingly acute dog ears. However, normally, fraternal twins did not deny the existence of each other like Erika did. Well, what are you going to do? It's just a normal day isn't it?

The next time the bus stopped a crowd of people walked on. As each one passed by without looking, Damien could tell which person it was just by the scent of them. Along with super sensitive hearing like a dog, Damien also had the sense of smell of a dog as long with the fangs and sometimes, the temper mental behavior of one. However, this day, he smelt a different scent. This has never happened to him in a daily routine. He could usually remember everyone's scent the first time he met them or smelt them. For the first time in, probably a week, Damien actually lifted his cap above his cobalt blue eyes and silver bangs. He looked around and did not see anyone different. Although unnerved, he did not want people to see his concern so he covered his eyes again and went back to pretending to be asleep.

The bus continued on for it's ten minute bus ride, all the time Damien still pondering what the smell was. He must talk to Erika, so instead of being first of the bus he waited until everyone was almost off the bus. Normally, Erika, the teen queen, was last off the bus (being last allowed her minions to form a royal passageway for their majesty). As Erika passed by him he reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

"I have to talk to you." He said in as urgent tone that he could muster.

Erika looked at him in a kind of "not now what do you think you're doing look" then finally yelled out, "Get off of me you freak!" and shoved him aside and walked off.

Making sure to be at least ten paces behind Erika, he could not help from overhearing one of the many followers saying, "See, I told you he was a stalker."

Damien was used to his sister ignoring him so he just went about as he always does and got off the bus and went to his locker.

_5,24,7, _Damien spun his locker and finally, with a click, his locker popped open. Damien was not the neatest of people. This was blatantly obvious at first sight into his locker. He had three old banana peels, a book from freshmen year, one gym shoe (the other's whereabouts is unknown to all), three old gym shirts and two pairs of smelly gym shorts (none of which had been worn for years) and finally, what he was searching for, in a small corner at the back of his locker, his four books for his four classes.

While rummaging through his locker he sensed something behind. In a blink of an eye he whirled around and grabbed the person behind him by the collar of his shirt and pinned him up against the wall. Growling, with fangs showing, Damien realized that this was his one and best friend, Jake.

"Whoa man, easy up." Said Jake in his usual cool-guy tone.

Jake was the only one who knew about his crazy lineage and one of the few who would believe that this lowly scum could be related to the highest of all highs: Erika.

"Sorry, I've been all screwed up today, I thought I smelt something on the bus today, and then right now, I thought you were some evil force," Damien said, letting Jake get back on the ground and walking back over to his locker and grabbing his books, "well, anyway, we better get to class, the bell is going to ring soon."

Just as Damien finished this sentence the bell rang. Damien, with his supernatural speed left Jake in the dust as he tore off to his first period.

He got there just in time not to be yelled at too much, after all Jake was almost 5 minutes later than he was. First period was a usual bore, science. It should be a crime to have science in first period. It should also be a crime to be a monotonous science teacher. Furthermore, it should be a crime to separate two good friends in a morning science class with a monotonous teacher.

Anyway, Damien knew all he needed to know, for some reason, school came easy to him, especially science. Damien would either sleep or day dream while looking out of the window in this class and would still get 90's on all the class.

Well, as Mr. Fukaro droned on, unaware of the time, the bell rang. What seemed like 5 minutes of daydreaming was really the whole 70 minutes of class. Damien could care less about elapsed time; he just collected his books and made his way to his second period, which he did not share with Jake.

This class was gym, one of his most preferred classes, if he could actually try but like his mother told him since he was a little kid, "don't try too hard, you don't know what you're capable of, you may end up hurting someone, and the only thing we don't need is a law suit and you being exposed." Blah, blah, blah, that's all it was, useless blabber.

This class they ended up going outside to practice running, and it was unusually calm. Not a breeze anywhere. If you were to pick up a blade of grass and let it go, it would fall straight down. It was eerie.

Everybody lined up in a line, waiting to for their turn to run and show off how great they were, or weren't. Damien hated this above all because if he showed his true speed, he would surely be rejoiced as the school new leading runner, and even if he cut back and was second, third or even fourth fastest, he would get some attention, so do get rid of any hope of being looked at as an idol, he would run quite slow.

While waiting in line he could hear people trying to run with him. This was not the first running exercise that the class had done and, of course, he had to make sure to run slow and, in comparison, most people would look good against him.

Damien almost chuckled. He had the faintest thrill of racing against the fastest person and smoking him. This was only an idea, he could never do this, keep in the shadows and nobody will know.

While waiting in line to be humiliated a sudden gust of wind arose. So strong and so sudden that Damien's hat, at once, blew off. His unnatural silver hair and dog ears were exposed. Although nobody was paying attention to him at the moment did not mean that they wouldn't for long. Once one person notices and freaks out then it was all over. However, if he used his incredible reflexes and speed, someone will surely notice and know something is up. All this panicking made him forget the true issue at hand, someone figuring out…again.

He dropped to the ground and, while there took a quick scan. He saw his hat and made a quick grab for it. By this time he had also realized that people were looking at him too.

Damien looked up at all the confused faces then he realized that they were wondering why he was on the ground.

"Ow, ow!" Damien screamed in pain, clutching his right leg.

"Damien, what's the matter, are you ok?" the gym teacher said walking over to see what the commotion was all about.

"My leg, oh, my leg!" Damien yelled.

"Help me get him out of here and to the nurse's office, Billy." The teacher said pointed to one of Damien's fellow classmate.

Damien walked with Billy to the nurse's office and, after being examined and told that nothing was wrong was dismissed for lunch.

Luckily, lunch went smooth, no close calls of being caught as what he was and no ominous forces around. Third and fourth went good too (third extremely well since there was a substitute and Jake in the class, always a set up for a laugh riot). He got on the early bus since he had nothing really to do because Jake had gotten detention for patronizing the sub.

Obviously Erika wasn't on the bus, probably off with her friends doing something "cool", so he had to walk home alone. Not that he minded or anything, just sometimes it's better with company, especially on this screwed up day.

He was walking up to his house, past the shrine and past the tree that his father had been sealed on and his mother had set free so many years ago when, all of a sudden he sensed the strange being once again. He quickly turned around, ready for another fight and hoping it wasn't Jake again skipping his detention, when from on one of the branches came this dark figure, a lot too fast and a lot too smooth moving to be Jake, that landing right in front of Damien.

Damien was about to swing but before he could, he found himself flying through the air and landing hard on the ground. He hadn't even felt the hit until he was lying on the ground with a massive stomachache.

More to come, this is only the start, please R&R and tell me how you like it so far.


	2. A Normal Day part 2

Chapter 2: A Normal Day: Part 2

Erika was not the brain that her brother was. She was more socially apt than she was knowledgably. However, she was not a total failure at school. She managed to get by with not good yet not bad. She could probably rise to the ranks of her fabulous brother if she applied herself more and actually cared but she found school stupid, pointless and, above all else, boring.

In her third period, English, she had been having a hard time paying attention. She was caught up about the scene on the bus earlier that day. A few moments after she had gotten on the bus, she had sensed something eerie, something not right, something not…human.

As if her questioning her senses wasn't enough Damien had tried to talk to her as she was leaving the bus. This was unusual in many ways unto itself. One, he knows better not talk to her, two, if anyone got wind of them being related, she'd never live it down, and three, he never talks to her so if he was willing to risk it then it must have been about something important.

Also, at lunch she thought she had heard her name being called out from across the cafeteria. Erika had gotten really scared because all the people that would call out her name was already with her and it was a man's voice, she did not consult with any men aside from teachers, and never out of class either.

"Erika!" Mrs. Kelly said, "Will you please stand up and read the rest of it?"

Erika got slowly to her feet, picking up her book, as luck would have it, she had no friends in this class who were paying attention that could point out where she was.

"Um…" she stammered, "I…I don't really know where we are, sorry, Mrs. Kelly."

"Maybe I should give the whole class a pop quiz on your behalf about Shakespeare's sonnet no. 32, then." Mrs. Kelly said mockingly. "You kids better start studying now. You may sit, Erika."

Embarrassed, feeling like hundreds of eyes were pointed at her (it wasn't really hundreds of eyes, maybe 40 or 50, but certainly not hundreds), Erika sat back down and tried to hide the rest of the class.

Luckily for her, there was only 10 more minutes of class left and, once those were up, she was first out the door.

Now, her English classroom was situated in a long hallway of classrooms, all full of students that should be pouring out of class right about now. However, none of them are. The students who were just in the class with her that should be coming out right behind her weren't.

At first she thought she had imagined the bell and that she left when she wasn't supposed to. She quickly went to turn back and go into the class however, where there should have been a door was, in fact, just a wall.

She looked down the hallway again and saw no doors on any of the walls and no end to the hallway either.

She spun around to look behind her to see if there was any way to get out the opposite way. There wasn't. The only thing that was there was an ominous looking man in a trench coat and big, floppy hat that covered most of his face.

"Who are you, what have you done with me?" she yelled out to him.

He raised his head, revealing only the glint of one eye. Like going into an epileptic seizure, Erika's head felt like it was going to split in two. She screamed the loudest she could scream and finally, collapsed onto the floor.


	3. A Normal Day part 3

Chapter 3: A Normal Day: Part 3

Damien landed hard on the ground and, as if the hard ground breaking his fall was not bad enough, he thought that he had broken a few ribs. He lay there, squirming in agony, wondering what kind of person could inflict this much pain that easily and to him nonetheless.

Damien realized that if this person had gone out of their way to attack him so viciously that they would not just hit him once and leave him, they would want to finish the job.

Damien, set on not going down without a fight, very painfully got his feet. With his left arm holding his gut, he was ready for what this person could dish out.

Getting ready to fight, Damien bared his fangs and got his nails ready. The man was standing there in an over-sized trench coat and floppy hat that covered most of his face. Although Damien could not see his face, he knew that the mysterious man was smirking. Angered by his cockiness, Damien charged at him ignoring all pain.

The man effortlessly dodged Damien attack and jumped up, higher than the great tree. Shocked by this amazing feat Damien watched him gracefully land on his feet and charge towards him.

Trench coat billowing from the wind he was creating, the man, all of a sudden, multiplied into five trench coat wearing freak shows. Damien knew that he was no man but on of the creatures his father boasted about destroying. Feeling a need to defeat this creature and to show his father he was as good as him, Damien leaped upwards just as the five of them would have pulverized him if he had not gotten out of the way.

Seizing the opportunity, Damien bounced off one of the branches of the great tree and came hurling down on the five men. However, just as he was about to hit them, they disappeared.

Sensing that there was now only one man, directly in front of him, Damien did not even stop to consider the pain in his side, he just charged towards him, full speed, full anger. As he was running he had raised his hand, high in the air. He was doing this so that he could capture the wind in his hand and pulse his power up into his hand. With the tremendous force of the wind and his own power, this attack was quite strong.

When he reached his target, Damien slammed his open hand down, now pulsating with energy, onto the enemy. However, his hand was stopped by a mighty grip grabbing his wrist.

Damien was ready to tear his assailant apart with his left hand when he looked up and saw none other than his own father, Inuyasha, holding his wrist.

Erika slowly opened her eyes. She was dizzy and had a terrible headache. She did not know where she was. She sat up and the damp cloth that was on her forehead fell off. She winced from the pain that was caused while sitting up. She lay back down.

The ceiling spun around and around in front of her eyes. The ceiling was familiar, the bed was familiar, and the lamp on the side table was familiar.

She sat up slowly, looking around, taking in her surroundings. At first she could not comprehend why everything was so familiar and then she realized that this was her room. This was her ceiling, her bed, and her lamp. But how did she get here?

She took the risk of getting up and walking around. After every step she had to stop because there would be a shooting pain in her head. After what felt like ten minutes, she had finally gotten to her bedroom door and slowly opened it. She looked down the hall towards her parents' room and towards Damien's room. She was relieved that the hallway had doors.

All of a sudden, a door slammed nearby. The slamming was so ferocious that it shook the whole house. The shaking of the house shook her and made her head feel like it was splitting.

She stopped moving for what felt like another ten minutes. Finally, the pain subsided and she felt ready to move again.

She heard murmuring coming from the kitchen downstairs. She could hear the scream of the kettle signaling that the water was boiling. The scream, like the door, made her head feel like splitting.

Her room was situated in the middle of the upstairs hallway to get to the stairs she had to pass by Damien's room. She did so very cautiously. She took everything step by step. Never too fast, nothing was too fast.

She finally got to the stairs and, looking down from on top of them, it looked as high up as Mount Everest. She could think of going down the stairs.

From out of nowhere Damien's god awful music started blaring. All it was was just a whole bunch of people screaming incoherently. How anybody could listen to it was beyond her.

The music, which was probably ten decibels higher than what could be consider safe for the ear drums, felt like someone was putting a jackhammer to her head. Her vision went blurry and she started stammering around.

She fell forwards and down the stairs. She could feel nothing except the pain in her head. To her, the fall down the stairs was painless. Lying at the bottom of the stairs, she could feel someone trying to help her up. When she looked up at who it was she saw the man in the trench coat and floppy hat.

She could not believe it. He was here. How did he get here? How did he get past her mom and dad? How? How? How?

She could think of nothing to do but scream and so, that is what she did: scream.

Damien looked on at his father in disbelief. Why would he restrain him from ripping this intruder to shreds? Did he not know that he had attacked him? Did he not know that he, most likely, cracked a few of his ribs and this, not being an easy task, proved him to be a threat?

"Let go of me!" demanded Damien, struggling against his father's ferocious grip.

"Calm down!" Inuyasha ordered. "He is…a friend."

Damien, taken aback by this new information, stopped fighting against his father. "A friend?" Damien asked wondrously, "What kind of a friend attacks your child without even a simple 'hello'?"

"A friend who has come to test you're ability." Spoke up the mystery man, "A friend who has waited 500 years to see if you are ready. A friend who desperately needs your help." At this he took off his hat, revealing two somewhat fox-like ears and snout.

"Oh, Shippou you sly fox!" Inuyasha said with a smile. Inuyasha noticed that Damien looked immensely confused and tried to offer an explanation. "Me and your mother have told you about this little nuisance. In my era, at least the era in which I was born and your mother traveled to, we met this youngin'," and at this, Inuyasha looked him up and down, "or at least he used to be a youngin'. Well anyway, although he usually just got in the way, he did in his small way, help us defeat Naraku and there must be something very important to tell us if he waited for 500 years to tell us."

"Yes, there is, I-"

"Save it, Shippou, I think the best thing to do is for you to come in, have some tea and then me, you and Kagome can talk this out." Inuyasha said.

Inuyasha walked towards the house and Shippou followed leaving Damien outside, mouth wide open, still completely confused about what just happened.

Right when Inuyasha and Shippou were about to go inside Damien yelled, "wait!" and started to walk towards them. "So, this…thing is just going to come in here, attack me, maybe break some of my ribs, which I can't really go to the hospital for, and all you're going to do is invite him in for tea?"

"Yes." Inuyasha said and walked away with Shippou, once again leaving Damien looking thunderstruck.

Damien stormed in moments after and yelled, "This is bullshit!" and stomped upstairs and into his room, slamming the door behind him.

He was pumped full of energy, pumped full of anger. He needed to blow off steam. Just as he thought the word steam he heard the kettle downstairs. Apparently Kagome had a kettle on already. Either that or, in his flurry of anger, he lost track of time. No matter which one it was the screaming kettle made him even angrier. He needed to drown it out so he went to his stereo, found his loudest and hardest CD and played it, full blast.

Just then, he heard a series of random thumps, like someone falling down the stairs and then a scream.

He opened his door and looked out and saw, at the foot of the steps, the Shippou creep loaming over Erika. Damien decided to ignore this display and kept right on with his loud music playing.

Now the odd thing is, most people would look at the events of this day as odd or out of the norm, however, this is just a normal day in the Higurashi household.


	4. Damien

Chapter 4: Damien

Damien was outside, shirtless, showing off his amazing body. Too bad there were no spectators. Actually, it was good there were no spectators because then he could not go through his regular daily routine.

On school days he usually has to wake up at, at least, five just to go through his meditation and Saturday's are no exception either. So here, he was, at five o'clock, outside with the dawning sun. The lingering cool of the night soothes the muscles in his body and, slowly, he begins his movements.

To control his demonic urges, Damien was encouraged to take up martial arts. He chose Chi Wang, an ancient type of karate/kung fu from the feudal age. Few people even know about this type of fighting style. It was extremely hard to find a mentor to teach him. Kagome had to pull some strings and bring in someone from a few towns over. Of course, Chi Wang masters believe in demonic forces and magic so, they had to tell their secret.

Damien gripped his two Sais in his hands. Two fingers were on either side of the big blade and resting on the other two protruding blades. He swung his arms methodically and slowly. A few quick jabs here and there, but, overall, they were smooth and slow.

He started when he was only five. It was imperative that he do so because, at the age of five he felt his first wave of extreme anger and lost control of his powers and almost destroyed the whole town. It took his father and his mother all their power just to restrain them. Of course, they were forced to move to keep their identities secret and that's when they found Eri Fuji, Damien's Chi Wang master.

Damien stood of two short stumps in a middle of a pond. This was part of his training, to keep balance while performing all his moves.

He had chosen his Sais as a weapon when he was 7. After only two years of training he had learned so much and achieved so much more that Eri thought it necessary for him to get his weapons now. Usually you got your significant weapons when you are in your 15th year of training.

He stood, completely balanced and did a slow, methodic, roundhouse kick while balancing on one foot on a little stump over a shallow pond.

The Sais, like many of the Chi Wang weapons, has a special significance to those who chose them. The three blades signify one entity split into three.

His foot that was in the air landing perfectly on a stump. At the moment of his foot touching the stump he jumped up and did a kick/stab in the air and landed perfectly on two more stumps.

First, the two small blades represent his bond with his parents and Erika. However much he hates to admit it his parents and Erika have a special bond with him for the pure fact of what they are. The big blade holds a special place in his heart for the big blade represents Eri.

Moving into a quicker pace, he started to run among stumps while doing flips and kicks.

Not many people actually acquire the Sais. They are the most sacred of all the weapons that Chi Wang offers. In fact, over the many centuries that this has been around only a few hundred people have gotten it.

Like many people that practice Chi Wang, Damien has a spiritual connection with his Sais. His Sais are as much attached to him as his right hand is attached to his right arm.

Damien was not as focused as he should have been while doing his practices. With this sudden arrival of this Shippou person, he has been finding it hard to stop thinking about him.

When Damien was 11 years old, Eri died. He left Damien his Sais. These were sacred Sais. These Sais were passed down from master to student for centuries and, every time one master of the Sais would die, his Chi would be locked in these Sais making these Sais the most powerful and respectful of all weapons in Chi Wang.

Anyway, after Eri died Damien felt another wave of anger. Damien had been closer to Eri then he had been to his own father and mother. Eri helped him through many hard times and then, all of a sudden he was gone. This was a hard blow for Damien's fragile 11-year-old psyche. Using the ancient Sais, he was able to destroy the house that Eri was in in a matter of seconds. However, since Eri had been locked into the Sais he was able to control him before he went further and, once again, they had to move. He never touched the Sais again.

However, at about this time, Damien's grandma was getting sick so they decided to go live there. One year later, she died. However, Damien took this ok, he never was close to her.

He has taken it upon himself to further his training by himself for the past 5 years.

Thinking about his master and of the bastard Shippou Damien completely lost balance and fell into the pond with a big splash. "FUCK!" he yelled.

He hasn't fallen for almost of month. He thought he was getting so good. _Well,_ he thought, _keeping your cool is one of the major lessons in Chi Wang. _

Thinking this, he got up and went inside. "You should never push yourself" Damien could remember Eri saying this. While walking up to his room, he started to cry a little bit. Never one who could deal with a flurry of emotions (if his rampage at age five and eleven wasn't proof enough), he lifted up the loose floorboard underneath his bed and took out his stash and pipe. He smoked up right there in his bedroom, lucky that no one was awake to smell it.


	5. Erika

Chapter 5: Erika

Erika walked out of her room looking prim, proper and perfect. The three P's…oh how she hated the three P's. Everyday she had to be practically perfect in every way. Not that she didn't enjoy being in the spot light and have everyone look up to and want to be her, it's just that sometimes it can get a little bit too overwhelming. Sometimes she just wants to be able to pig out on a pizza and not have anyone judge her or look at her funny.

She made her miraculous entry into the kitchen where Damien was eating like a mad man and her mother was, most likely cooking the fifth course of breakfast. From the kitchen window she could see her father and the strange man whose name is Shippou (it turns out that he was only checking her spiritual powers, which she now knows is "not up to par" and that she should practice more) sparing outside.

It was around 9 o'clock, she always sleeps in whenever she has the chance unlike Damien, and she sat down to breakfast. Her mother set her a plate in front of her covered with food: eggs, bacon, toast, sausage and more. All of her favorites. Her mother was an amazing cook. She was about to take her first bite when all of a sudden the phone rang. She knew it was one of her friends calling to do something. You think they could give her a break, I mean, it's 9 o'clock.

"Erika, it's your friend." Sung her mother.

She got up, walked over to the phone and said, "hello," in the perkiest voice she could muster for being this early.

"Oh, hey Erika. You know what I heard? I heard that Jeffery likes Caitlin but Caitlin likes…" _Oh god, _Erika thought, _won't you just shut up and give me a moment to myself?_ "Hello, Erika? Are you still there? Are you even paying attention?"

"Oh yes, Darlene." Erika said, "I am just totally stunned about Jeffery and Caitlin." She said hoping her reaction was right.

"I know, I can't believe it either. And I heard that…"

_She never ends with the meaningless gossip, _Erika thought.

"So, like, do you wanna go to the mall and check it out?" Darlene said hurriedly.

Erika, looking for an excuse to ditch said hurriedly, "No, um, actually, I'm sick." She faked a cough. "Yeah, Strep throat, just inflamed over the night. Sorry, but tell me everything ok."

"O my god, are you ok? Do you need some medicine? Because I can hurry up and run down to the corner store and buy you some medicine and then I can come over and keep you company and I can make you soup and do your chores and anything you want."

Erika couldn't take much more so she just slammed down the phone and went back to her breakfast.

She wasn't nearly halfway done her eggs when the phone rang again and, sure enough, it was one of her friends.

"O my god, I just got off the phone with Darlene and she said you had melanoma and then your phone short circuited and electrocuted you."

It's just like Darlene to over exaggerate everything.

It was about noon and Erika had done nothing but lie around and rest. She gets a day to herself once every month. She was happy to just rest and relax.

Erika was a complex girl and lived a complex life since the day she was born. Her mother and father were a witch/magical person and half demon (although a good demon). Since there weren't many witches and demons left (actually none) they were the strongest around. Even from the feudal age, where her father was from, they would be ranked up with the best of them. So, in turn, her and her brother were pretty powerful. Although, since they were twins, the powers that would normally get passed down got split into two. Therefore, Damien had pure half demon powers, and Erika had pure witch/magical powers.

When Erika's mother was out of high school, her and her father left the house that they currently live in and moved a few towns over. Erika's grandma was getting old and could not take care of her father so, when Erika's mother moved they took him along with her and a year later Erika and Damien were born. Damien, ever since he was born was always a man onto himself. He always wanted to do things himself and never had any human bonding with anyone. Erika, on the other hand took a shining to her great grandpa.

Erika enjoyed all the stories that her great grandpa would tell her about his days in his youth and how he honed his magical skills that run deep in their family and who used them to help his father defeat the last remaining demons. He even showed her his Gunsen that he got from his father. It was, at least, 150 years old but looked brand new.

When Erika was only five, they had to move. She did not know why they had to move or why they had to move so quickly, all she knew was that her great grandpa was getting ill and she wanted to help him get healthier, quicker.

Unfortunately, when Erika was 7, he died. Erika got so angry at Damien because he refused to go to the funeral. That was when they started to part ways and, eventually, they started to deny existence of each other.

Erika was sitting on her bed listening to her portable CD player. The music calmed her and helped her relax. Although the music was not too loud she could barely hear the knock on the door.

"Come in," she said and her mother walked in. From outside in the hall she could see the Shippou creep, lurking.

"Now, Shippou says, and I agree, that you should start practicing your magic again. You remember? Like when you used to practice with great grandpa?" her mother said in a soothing voice, testing to see if Erika still had a headache.

"What with that?" Erika said coldly motioning to Shippou.

"Oh honey, he was only trying to test you. He needed to see if you were ready." Erika's mother said.

"Ready? Ready for what?" Erika said sharply.

Her mother paused for a second. She looked at Shippou and Shippou looked back. It seemed as if they were speaking telepathically. "We cannot tell you. You are not ready."

"Again with this readiness crap. Just tell me what it is I have to be ready for and I'll start getting 'ready'" Erika said and turned on her music again.

In what seemed like no time (literally, like not even one millisecond) her headphones were off and her CD player was gone and there Shippou was staring at her.

His stare was mesmerizing. His eyes were so perfect, yet so wrong. It felt odd, yet welcoming. She felt like she was going to be hurt, yet saved.

She couldn't differentiate between up and down. It was all so confusing. And then she found herself saying, "alright, fine I'll do it," and not even knowing why she had said it.

She got up and followed them out of her room, down the stairs, through the kitchen, out the door. When she realized that they were heading to the shrine she remembered the first time they had moved here.

Erika was in the car, bored out of her mind, not paying attention to where it was going when, all of a sudden, it stop and she realized, they were here. The place was enormous. She couldn't understand why they had left in the first place. Her grandparents must have been loaded.

"Ok, Erika, you can go search around the grounds while we unpack." Her mother said cheerfully.

Being 11 and a girl had its perks. For one thing, she was exempt to most strenuous activities like lifting heavy suitcases. She snickered as she saw Damien struggling with the couch. Although only 11, he could pick up a whole couch, not smoothly and not easily but he always liked to show our father all that he can do.

It serves Damien right to have to help unpack and move in. It was his whole fault that we had to move in the first place. Just because his precious old Eri died and he had a temper tantrum and knocked down our house. _Sometimes he can be so immature, _thought Erika.

Erika was thinking about all the times that it had been all his fault for things and she had to deal with it to. She hated him. She wished she could be have been an only child. Who needs a twin anyway?

She wasn't really paying attention to where she was going and, before she knew it, she was in front of a shed-like house thing. Her mother had told her to explore and that is what she was doing so she opened up the door.

Inside, it seemed pretty lame. In the middle of the floor, there was a well. That was all. The well had been sealed and a whole bunch of stickers that she saw her great grandpa with on it. He never told her what they were for.

She was about to leave when all of a sudden something caught her eye. She looked more intensely at it and then, after seeing nothing she went to close the door but, once again she saw nothing.

She was about to step all the way in when her grandmother put her hand on her shoulder and, after making Erika jump and scream said, "that is no place for little girls to be playing in" and led her away.

Now, she was going into this place that was "no place for little girls to be playing in". She felt uneasy walking towards it like there was some sort of force trying to stop her from reaching it.

She walked in and, it was the same as always. Just on little well in the middle of the floor. However, it was different. The lid was gone and so were the stickers.

Erika walked towards the well and looked in. Nothing in it just seemed normal.

"Why are we here?" she asked while turning around. However, when she went to turn around to face them she was pushed. Pushed into the well.

If you can remember or, at least know what it is that Kagome is, I mean her title, like Inuyasha is a demon and Kagome is…. Please tell me, it will help with my writing.


	6. The Feudal Age Sort Of

Chapter 6: The Feudal Age, Sort Of

Falling down the well Erika expected to have a hard landing however, her falling just seemed to stop. One moment she was falling, the next she was lying in the bottom of the well.

"Ok you guys. You've had your fun not let me up from here." She shouted. Nobody answered her. "Hello! Can anyone hear me?" no answer.

Getting fed up Erika looked around the well. She noticed a ladder made of planks and rope. She did not notice this ladder while she was falling nor did she notice it when she had looked down in the well. She thought nothing of this and, at once, climbed up it, happy to be able to get out of the grungy, and smelly well.

She almost fell back into the well when she saw her surroundings. The well, which was situated in the shrine on her family's property, was now in a vast open field. In the distance, she saw buildings, old structured but still looking new. Closer than the buildings but in the opposite direction she saw a tree. The tree was a mighty tree. She had only seen one tree this mighty; it was the tree at her house. The tree that her mother had forbidden her from climbing on it when she was 12 years old.

Erika deduced that this was still the same place yet not. She was quite confused with it.

All of a sudden she heard noise in the well. She looked down it but it was too dark to see. However, she could see the ladder moving. There was something in the well and it was coming up. She started to back up, frightened. She was considering running or untying the rope from the rock it was anchored to. In her panic she could not decide on something to do and just stood there looking.

Erika sighed a sigh of relief when she saw her mother's head pop up and saw, "well, this is odd."

"That's all you have to say to this?" Erika said frantically. "That creep threw us down the well and probably put some magic spell on us to make us end up…here!"

"Oh shush." Said her mother plainly and started off towards the house.

Erika, flabbergasted at her mother's dismissal of what is happening, stood there not able to move.

Her mother stopped and looked back and said, "well, aren't you coming?'

Erika obeyed her mother and ran up to her side.

"Where are we?" Erika asked.

"Home." Her mother said calmly.

"This is not home!"

"Sure it is."

"How can you be so calm?"

"Easy."

"Are you at least going to explain anything to me?"

"Your father knows everything."

"Dad? Where is dad?"

By this time they had reached the front door of the building. "Inside." Said her mother and walked inside. Erika, not wanting to be alone, followed her mother inside. Her mother seemed to know exactly where she was going, like she had been here before.

They came to a door and, upon opening the door, Erika saw her father and Damien sitting at a table with four cup of tea and a kettle.

"So glad of you to join us." Said her father to her mother. "What took you so long?"

"She was reluctant to come." Her mother motioned to Erika. "How compliant was he?"

"Oh, he was more than glad to come." Her father motioned to Damien, who seemed to be rubbing it into Erika in his own way that he was the good child.

"So, are you going to explain where we are and why?" Erika said suddenly.

"We are home." Her father said calmly.

"We are not home!" she yelled, getting frustrated.

"You asked where we are, and we are home. The real question is when." Her father said seeming too knowledgeable for his own good.

At this, Damien's ears perked and said, "when?"

"Exactly." Said their father, "we are approximately 350 years in the past."

"I thought it was odd. Shippou told me it would be different." Their mother said coolly.

"Will one of you explain what is going on?" Erika said losing her calm.

"Where should I begin?" their father asked himself as well as their mother. "Well, I guess you could say it all started with your mother in her high school years, just a bit younger than the two of you. She had found herself in the shrine with the well in it, that fateful day. Well you see, in my time demons were running amuck. There was mass panic everywhere. And one of them found their way into that well there," he said pointing to the well across the vast field, "and was sent to the present, or at least your mother's present. Well, anyway, the demon grabbed your mother and dragged her into this time. After unsealing me, we went on an adventure after this big demon mob boss, I guess you could say, Naraku. The most powerful demon around. Well aside from me." He snickered. "Yadda, yadda, yadda, we meet up and I kicked his butt." He stopped and sipped his tea. He set his cup down and looked at Erika's bewildered face.

"WHAT? You actually expect me to believe this?"

"Look around you." Spoke up Damien. "Does this really look like the year 2005?"

"Don't get me started with you!" she said acting superior.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Damien nearly shouted.

"You. That's it. You're just…you!" Erika said with a lose of words. "You are always just too calm. You get this bombshell dropped on you and do nothing but sit there and drink your stupid tea!"

"I'm calm because I already knew," at this, Erika looked at her mother, who avoided her eyes, and her father, whose intense glare would force anyone to look away after 30 second tops. "Yeah, that's right. They told me. Haven't you ever wondered about these?" he said pointing to his ear, "or how you can, somehow, have the ability to move things and have impeccable control over yours and other's life forces?"

"Mom?" Erika asked pleadingly, hoping that this was all bullshit.

Her mother looked away.

"It's true." Said their father, "Eri said that we should explain everything to him, as part of his training. The more he knows about himself, the better he can try and keep in the rage."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Erika said.

"You never asked." Their father said bluntly.

Erika was speechless.

"I think we should get back to the story." Their mother spoke up for the first time since they got there.

"Yes of course. Well, anyway, this Naraku guy. He had the ability to multiply. Not actually multiply so that there'd be two Narakus but a sort of other demon. Just as powerful but with some restraints, such as not being able to attack him. At one point, he had separated into three separate demons. Kanna, a mirror bitch who could bounce back any attack you threw at her, this creepy little thing that was sort of like his baby, who could attach to you and control you, actually, he had control of your mother for a brief, very brief, amount of time. It didn't take me long to track him down and rip that greedy bastard off your mother's chest. Lastly, there was Kagura, a wind demon who could control the dead and pack one hell of a punch.

"Well, Naraku, being as strong as he was, could hide his location from the best trackers, i.e. me, and, I guess, he passed that trait onto his minions because for 150 years Kagura went unnoticed as she regained power." Their father paused to take a sip of tea.

"Once Naraku was defeated, we thought he had brought down his minions with him. Turns out we were wrong, we only _weakened_ Kagura. Albeit, we did weaken her almost to the point of death, a demon can always recover, given enough time. However, in that 150 years, Shippou spent studying the well. Why it travels back in time and why only certain people can do it. He was able to find that out and more. A way to manipulate it to travel to any time period you want. For instance, times when Kagura was weakened so that we can track her down and destroy her."

"Why would we want to destroy her?" Erika piped up.

"Can't you just let the man finish?" yelled Damien.

"You should just shut up." Erika yelled.

In one solid movement Damien stood up, took out his Sais and said, "Why don't you just try and make me."

"Damien! Erika! That's enough!" Their mother said trying to ease the tension between her two children.

Damien stood there, staring. At nothing really, just in Erika's general direction. This unnerved her. She felt like at any moment he would just pounce on her and, in his blind fury, nobody could stop him. However, in his head, Damien was going through the techniques of Chi Wang that help one calm down. Very effective, after only 10 seconds at concentration made him calm fully down and sit down to listen to the rest of his father's story.

"To answer your question Erika," began their father, "we would want to destroy her before she destroys us and the rest of the world allowing the demons to take rule of the world."

"But, great grandpa said that him, his father and a small group of elite warriors fought and killed the last of the demons. He said they were all gone." Erika said perplexed.

"They killed all the known demons. Powerful demons like Kagura can conceal their true identities from them. It's a good thing too, because any human would surely fall at the hands of Kagura. She is ruthless and blood thirsty. Also, the more she kills, the more powerful she gets. She sucks out the life force and adds the dead bodies to her undead army. Shippou estimates that her collection of all the strongest humans, and demons, has risen up to 10,000. All of their unique abilities and strength amplified by their alliance with Kagura.

"Enough about present day Kagura, let's get back to our story. So, after defeating Naraku, your mother and I returned to present day and soon settled down and had…you." He said looking at the two of them. "However, back in this time, Shippou was training and learning the secrets of this well. One day, Shippou had left to run an errand in a couple towns over. Being a demon and, obviously, the fastest among them, he was best suited for the job. What he didn't know is that it was all a ploy of Kagura's. She was to lure him away from the settlement and, with no one here who could possibly stand up to her, she killed them all. Since this family was best known for their Mikos, she stole the life forces of all the top Mikos and used them to kill the rest. Kagura, making her first appearance in over a century, had started her undead army."

He paused. Let it all sink in. There was silence for a couple minutes. Nobody said a thing and it was dangerous to take a breath.

"That was a month ago, today." He said at last.

"How does Shippou know it was her?" Damien asked.

"When he got back the place was drenched in blood and in the back field, ablaze in the crops was the word: Kagura. Ever since then, Shippou has been tracking her. Trying to destroy her for what she'd done. One time he almost succeeded. However, in her grand unveiling of her undead army, Shippou was almost ripped limb from limb while fighting the mass. This was only 50 years ago, after your great grandpa and his father went around destroy demons. For those 50 years Shippou had been searching for us. He did not know where, exactly, Kagome was born and when. He wasn't even sure where it was. Everything had changed so much. What used to be complete rural area was now urban. To find a well anywhere was like finding a needle in a haystack. Shippou guessed that Kagura is searching for you two, too."

"Why us?" Erika asked.

Their father looked down. Never once had he not been able to look anyone in the eyes. Erika could see anguish in his face. It almost looked as if he would cry. Erika dismissed this idea almost at once. Her father, the great Inu Yasha, destroyer of Naraku, would not cry. However, she could not as easily dismiss what she saw in front of her: a tear drop from her father's eye. She looked to her mother in amazement. She looked close to tears to. This was not that bizarre for her mother however, she could not see the reason for it.

Holding her tears in their mother stood up and grabbed Erika by the arm (maybe a little too hard because it hurt a little). "I think you should come with me, Erika." She said her voice cracking from anguish.

Completely baffled Erika said, "But mom – "

She was cut off when her mother suddenly squeezed her arm and hissed, "Now!" Erika had no idea that her mother was that strong or that forceful. Nevertheless, Erika got up and followed her mother.

She led Erika outside and to a building, which must have been completely demolished in the past 350 years because Erika could not remember this building ever being there.

When her mother opened it, Erika saw what she thought she was never see, a whole shed full of weapons. Although, most were not what you would consider weapons (a walking stick, an umbrella and, what appeared to be, an umbrella stand), she did recognize one thing: a Gunsen. The one like that her great grandpa showed her when she was little. In fact, it was the one that her great grandpa showed her. She thought that it looked brand new when she saw it before, this one gleamed. It seemed as if it were made right before the attack on the building.

Without even realizing she had walked right up to them and was about to pick it up when she realized that she might not be allowed to touch it. She looked back at her mother, who nodded. Overwhelmed with happiness she picked it up and practice swung it like she had seen her great grandpa do so many times. However, unlike her great grandpa something weird happened. She did not exactly see what happened but when it was done, there was a big hole in the side of the building.

"Maybe I should hold onto this for the time being." Her mother said while taking it from her. Quietly, she agreed. Although she was beyond happy, she understood what she wanted to do and what was safe for everyone around her.

Sorry about not updating for a while. Everything's been real hectic. I'll try to have another chapter up within a week however, no promises. Please reaview!


	7. Schoold Days, School Days

Chapter 7: School Days, School Days

The Higurashi family spent the rest of the weekend in the past, training and learning to hone their abilities. Although it had only been two days Damien and Erika felt like they had learned a lot. Erika was now able to swing the Gunsen without destroying something or someone and Damien had learned a few moves from his father. He couldn't wait to show Jake.

"Hey Jake." Damien said, walking up to Jake's locker in the morning. "You'll never guess what I did on the weekend." He said enthusiastically.

"Let's see…by the look on your face I can guess…you were abducted by aliens, probed in many different orifices and, now your wondering why you enjoyed it so much."

"Nice try but…no. You and I both know that aliens aren't real." Damien said in reply to Jake's astounding accusation.

"Yeah, just like demons aren't real eh, Damien?" Jake said with a move towards his hat.

"HEY! There is no kidding about the hat!" Damien said in an almost too serious a voice for this conversation.

"So, are you going to tell me or not?" Jake said impatiently.

The story, extremely condensed since Damien left out all the juicy parts about Naraku and Kagura, took the rest of the walk from Jake's locker to first period.

"So…time travel you say?" Jake said mischievously, "Did you see the pyramids be built? Did aliens help them? What really happened to Moses and the plaques?"

All Damien could think to say to this was: "Aliens are not real!"

He might have said this too loud because, as they were walking in the room their first period teacher looked at them very strictly and said, "We do not care about your outlook on aliens or other intelligent life, we only care about the scientific explanation of those, that of which you can't comprehend."

Looking smug at his insult, Mr. Fukaro waited for the class to started laughing at my expense. When they didn't his smug look turned to indignancy.

Mr. Fukaro's wild accusation of Damien's stupidity was highly overrated. In fact, Damien had the highest mark in the class, if not, the school and everyone knew that. Therefore, if anyone was going to get any student's opinion on any scientific reasoning…it would most likely be Damien's.

Mr. Fukaro took that option to pick fun at Damien for the plan fact that he was one of the smartest kids in the school however he slacked off. Damien would not pay attention, doodle or sleep or, on the odd chance, play a practical joke on him. Some teachers, like Mr. Fukaro, try to make it hard for Damien to get the marks he does by sometimes giving him harder tests as a "punishment". However, no matter how hard the test is, Damien still seems to get, at least, in the top 3 percentile of the students who have the much easier tests.

Damien thinks its because some of the teachers (i.e. Mr. Fukaro) aren't really that bright and had to struggle to get their teachers degree and, when they see a "no good nick" like Damien getting all the good marks they get jealous and take out their jealousy on him.

Nevertheless, this show of jealousy did not faze him in the least because Damien took his seat next to the window and daydreamed about battling demons and saving the world from the undead army of Kagura. Life was good.

The bell rung on only his third imagination of how he was going to slaughter Kagura. Leaving his thoughts and dreams behind he packed up his books and headed straight for the gym.

When he got there, however, the gym doors were locker and on the door there was a notice saying: _Presentation in process meet in room 153_.

Room 153 was the regular room for non-gym related gym. They called this the health part of health and fitness. It was all bogus. It was just a way to kick us out so that they could use the gym for more "efficient" purposes. Damien was not too upset, not like the rest of his classmates. He had only taken this class because he was forced to, unlike the rest of his jock classmates who couldn't wait to get out there and show everyone what their made of.

He walked in the classroom and found his classmates running amuck. The restless jocks who were supposed to be learning how to better their running and how to tone their muscles properly were stuck in this little room with nothing better to do but make paper airplanes and chat non-stop. This, of course, was not part of today's lesson plan but nobody felt like writing down notes from the 20 year old text books that were provided. Damien was never one to stray too far from the rest if it meant less work and more him time.

Damien found a nice little desk in the corner by a window. He liked the breeze. He like the feel of the cold air flowing on his face. It reminded him of Eri and how he used to take him up on the mountains near their house and train him. How he used to make him sit under waterfalls and meditate. Unlike first period, Damien spent this period reminiscing about Eri, his great Chi Wang master.

As well as first period, second period flew by with no time at all. It had only seemed like 10 minutes and already he was at lunch.

He walked down the stairs and then to his locker. Without even thinking he opened his locker, deposited his book and closed his locker. He was about to lock it when he realized something. His mess, his glorious mess, was askew. Something was wrong with it. It wasn't as he had left it. Like someone had…disturbed it

Nobody knew his combination, not even Jake. However stupid it may seem, he didn't want people rummaging through his stuff, especially Jake, even though he was his best friend,

What others may see as just a junk pile, Damien saw as his life. This was the one thing that was his and no one could take from him or change. All his stuff was misplaced. His banana peels, his crumpled up pieces of paper, his two year old binders that he hadn't used for, well, two years. And, wait, no it couldn't be. His _Stop, Koala Crossing Between 5 and 6 p.m._ sign was missing. That was his pride and joy.

All of a sudden he stopped worrying. He smelled something. He couldn't put his finger on it. It was different. Odd. Not…human. He looked around. Left. Right. Behind him.

When he turned back towards his locker he saw something out of the corner of his eyes. About to unleash one of the attacks his father had taught him he saw that it was only Erika. He kind of chuckled to himself. She was quite not human. He went to turn back towards his locker when something popped out in front of him. Damien was so spooked that he almost jumped up and hit the ceiling.

However, before he did so, he realized it was only Jake. "Jesus Christ Jake, you scared the shit out of me."

All he could do is laugh at me the rest of the lunch which proved not to be as much fun as it first seemed. Anyways, with Jake in the constant doubled over state lunch Damien pretty much spent the whole lunch time alone, with a laughing Jake. Damien spent much of the time daydreaming about Eri and killing Kagura. He even imagined killing Kagura with Eri. Times were good, at least, in his head they were.

The bell rang for third and Damien and Jake went to his locker, then Jake's, then third period. Jake, still having the giggles didn't feel like paying attention that much (if you could even call what he usually does paying attention).

Math, like science, just came to Damien. He could not pay attention all the way to a master's class in the most elite university of all the world and still get through with an 80. However, this simple grade 11 class was far too easy to get an 80 in. He would not settle for anything less than a 95. His mom always tells him to apply himself and he could get 100. Damien didn't care much about school. He always thought he had a higher calling, that he wasn't born the way he was born just to go to school, get an education, have a good career, then die. He wasn't quite sure it was that he was supposed to do, but he was starting to have a pretty good idea of what it was.

"Damien?" said a far off voice, "Damien, what is the answer?"

_Oh shit, _he thought. The teacher was talking to him. He had no idea. He scanned the board. Just simple equations. Find the root, what's X equal stuff. Bo-ring!

"Uh," Damien said calculating it in his head, "26?" he said taking a blind guess with his half fast calculations.

"You see, how he got that, class?" the teacher said, "you all could learn a thing or two from Damien."

His math teacher, unlike his science teacher was, obviously, bright while growing up, much like Damien, and can relate to him easier. His math teacher noted his brilliance but also noted his lack of motivation. He keeps on telling his parents that they should push him more. Try and get him to give a rat's ass. Not that they haven't tried (his father didn't at all, he believed that what Damien got is what he got and there was nothing that he could to do affect that. Also, the fact that his father had only, probably, a 3rd grade education on today's scale so any talk of numbers or parabolas were complete beyond him).

The bell rung before the teacher could finish explaining to all the stupid kids in his class how Damien had got the answer to the problem in less than a minute.

Not having time to ponder the idiocracy of his fellow classmates, Damien packed up and was out of the room before any of them, with only a little help of his supernatural demon powers.

Damien rushed as fast as he could to his fourth period classroom, English. English, his favorite class. He wasn't as good in English as he was in math and science but he had a general love for English. Poets, authors, all of that stuff. He loved how some could easier string together such lovely phrases that had such deep meanings. He could not wait to get to his the class because over the weekend, before he had been transported to the past, he had found a most interesting poem. One that he had special attachment to, even though he had just found it. This one particular poem seemed to catch all that was Damien.

To much disappointment, when he got their Mr. Bankotsu was already talking to a student. A student who was upset with the mark he had gotten on the last writing assignment he had gotten. An assignment that he, himself, had gotten an A on.

"You have no depth, no umpa," explained Mr. Bankotsu, "it's completely linear, no dimensions. It's just boring."

Not ever one to interrupt his favorite teacher ripping on a student, Damien went to his seat in the front of the class to wait. This was the one class that he wasn't in the back, and for one reason: he didn't want to sleep/day dream in this class, he actually wanted to pay attention and get a further knowledge of the written word.

Mr. Bankotsu had earlier in the year assigned each student a classic novel to read and this class was devoted to reading it. He had given strict orders to the class not to disturbed. Damien knew exactly what this was about. Damien understood that Mr. Bankotsu had been inspired by something and needed to write it down. Mr. Bankotsu had three novels published and he was working on the fourth. It was a serious. A very good serious if Damien said so himself.

Anyways, Damien had chosen to read the book 1984 by George Orwell. He was just getting to the good part when Winston and Julia were about to be captured when his phone started vibrating. During school hours he put it to vibrate so that nobody heard it if it rang. He took it out of his pocket and opened it. There was a text message that said: _come home immediately, no straggling. Don't bother using the bus, running is faster. Dad. _

When he checked the time it was a few second before the bell rang and then…_RIIIIIIIIIIING_. He picked up his stuff and took off super quick. However much he would have loved to converse with Mr. Bankotsu, his duty called.

He quickly got to his locker, got his stuff and took off, not even waiting to say goodbye to Jake. Running at top speed he got home in under 5 minutes whereas the bus takes at least 15 on a good day.

He quickly ran inside expecting to see his mom dead on the floor or something else horrific but instead, there was his father standing there with a stopwatch. As Damien opened the door his dad stopped it.

"5 minutes, 10 seconds, 3 milliseconds. Not bad, although it could be better."

His father said.

Damien couldn't believe it, all he wanted was to time his running speed. No emergency. No nothing!

"We've found a group of demons you and your sister could practice on. We better go fast, these demons usually don't stay in one place for too long."

Perturbed, Damien still followed instructions. He didn't like the idea of not being able to talk to his favorite teacher but fighting in a life or death battle against real live dangerous demons seemed to take his mind off of it.

He got everything he needed, his fighting scrubs, his Sais and his weed, because the last time they stayed for a weekend and he desperately needed it.


End file.
